The 56th Meeting of Nobel Laureates took place from June 25th–30th, 2006 in Lindau at Lake Constance. It was the 18th Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Chemistry. At the invitation of the president of the Council for the Nobel Laureate Meetings in Lindau, Countess Sonja Bernadotte, 23 Nobel Laureates travelled to Lake Constance to discuss current scientific topics with 511 young scientists from 53 countries. Scientific talks, intimate discussions on specialist themes and personal meetings formed the focal point of the conference.